Managing beneficiaries
You can view your saved beneficiaries in a few steps:
Log in to online banking
Select the menu icon (three horizontal lines at the top left)
Choose Transfers & Payments, then select Manage Beneficiaries.
You will see a list of beneficiaries saved for your selected organisation. If you work across more than one organisation, make sure you have selected the correct organisation first as beneficiaries are stored separately for each organisation.
Your beneficiaries are shown in alphabetical order in a clear, easy-to-read layout. For each beneficiary, you will see key details such as their name, nickname (if added), sort code, account number, status and available actions.
Simply choose Make Payment, Edit or Remove next to the beneficiary to complete your action. To see more details, select Edit. This shows additional information, including the bank name and payment reference.
To note: Any nickname you add is only visible to your organisation as it is not shared with the beneficiary.
You can search for a saved beneficiary in a few steps:
Log in to online banking
Select the menu icon (three horizontal lines at the top left)
Choose Transfers & Payments, then select Manage Beneficiaries.
You will see a list of beneficiaries saved for your selected organisation. If you work across more than one organisation, make sure you have selected the correct organisation first as beneficiaries are stored separately for each organisation.
To find a beneficiary, use the search bar on the Manage Beneficiaries page. You can search by:
Name (selected by default)
Nickname
Sort code
Account number
If you cannot find the beneficiary, check you have selected the right organisation or try a different search filter or search term.
No. You cannot use special characters (such as punctuation marks or symbols) in:
User references
Beneficiary references
Account names
Use letters and numbers only.
There is no limit to the number of beneficiaries you can create or save. When browsing, you will see beneficiaries in pages of results. Use the search bar to find any beneficiary across your full list.
To find a beneficiary quickly, use the search bar on the Manage Beneficiaries page. This is the easiest way to search, especially if you have a large number saved. You can search by:
Name (selected by default)
Nickname
Sort Code
Account Number
If you cannot find the beneficiary, check you have selected the right organisation or try a different search filter or search term.
You need to enter a minimum amount for each beneficiary to create a bulk payment template. The minimum amount is £0.01.
This amount is only a placeholder. You can change it before you submit a payment. When you use the template, you can review and update the amount for each beneficiary.
Important: For each bulk payment template you create, the combined total of all beneficiary amounts must be at least £1.00.
You can update the beneficiaries in your template at any time.
Important:
Only edit a template when there are no pending bulk payments using it. Changes may affect payments that are due to be processed.
Log in to online banking
Select the menu icon (three horizontal lines at the top left)
Select Bulk Payments and then Existing Templates
Find your template and select Edit under Actions
Scroll to 'Added Beneficiaries' section and select 'Edit' on the right
To add a beneficiary, select 'Add' next to their name. To remove a beneficiary, select 'Remove'.
To save your changes
Scroll down the page
Select 'Update template'
If you are removing beneficiaries, proceed to step 5
If you are adding beneficiaries, complete the amounts and references
Review your changes and select ‘Continue’ to save
You can remove a beneficiary at any time in online banking.
Important: Once you remove a beneficiary, you will no longer be able to make payments to them unless you add them again. Make sure any payments (including pending payments) have been fully processed before removing a beneficiary.
Log in to online banking
Select the menu icon (three horizontal lines at the top left)
Choose Transfers & Payments, then Manage Beneficiaries
If you work across more than one organisation, make sure you have selected the right one first as beneficiaries are stored separately for each organisation.
You will see a list of your saved beneficiaries in alphabetical order. To find a beneficiary, use the search bar. You can search by:
Name (selected by default)
Nickname
Sort code
Account number
If you cannot find the beneficiary, check you have selected the correct organisation or try a different search term or filter.
To remove a beneficiary:
Find the beneficiary in the list
Select 'Remove' next to their details
Select 'Yes' to confirm
For further guidance on managing beneficiaries, please refer to our user guide.
Making payments
We check that there are enough funds in your account before a payment is processed. For same day payments, we check that sufficient funds are available after the payment has been fully authorised. For future-dated payments, we check that sufficient funds are available at close of business the day before the payment is due.
Please make sure there are enough funds in your account to cover any payments due the following day.
You can cancel a bulk payment request if it is still in the review stage.
Online users with an Administrator, Authoriser, or Creator role can cancel a bulk payment request.
Users with a Viewer role cannot create, submit, approve, or cancel payments.
To cancel a bulk payment request:
Log in to online banking
Select the menu icon (three horizontal lines at the top left)
Expand Bulk Payments and select Payment Status
Find the payment in the list
If the status shows Ready for Review:
Select Review Payment under Actions
Review the payment details
Select Cancel Bulk Payment
Enter a reason when prompted and select Yes to confirm
There is no approval required to cancel the payment at this stage.
Important:
If the status shows Ready for Review, the payment is still in the review stage and you can continue to cancel it. Once cancelled, the status will update to Cancelled.
If the status shows Pending for Approval, follow the steps under the FAQ ‘What happens if the bulk payment has already been submitted?’.
The payment must be reviewed and rejected by an approver. The status will then show as Rejected by Approver.
The execution date is initially set, when creating a bulk payment template, to the date the template was created. When you create a bulk payment request, you will need to review and ‘edit’ the execution date, so it matches the date you wish the payment to be debited from your account (value date).
After you complete the initial submission, your bulk payment is not sent straight to approvers. It is first uploaded and moved into the Upload Status stage.
You must review the payment in Upload Status to confirm that it has uploaded correctly and that all details are accurate before it is sent for approval.
On the final page of your initial submission, you will see a confirmation message explaining that you need to go to Upload Status to complete the process. You can also go there directly from this page. Alternatively, you can access Upload Status at any time:
Select the menu icon (three horizontal lines at the top left)
Expand Bulk Payment and select Upload Status
If your bulk payment request shows a status of Ready for Review, it means the payment has completed the initial submission and is now in the second-stage review.
At this stage, the payment has been uploaded but has not yet been submitted for approval.
To continue:
Select View Details under Actions
Review the payment details
Complete the second-stage submission to send the payment to the designated approver(s), as defined in your Approval Matrix.
If all your intended beneficiaries are not listed when your bulk payment request is ‘Ready for Review’, then the details of missing beneficiaries may be incorrect. Please check the account name, sort code, and number and ensure that they do not include any special characters (punctuation marks and symbols).
If the status of your bulk payment request is listed as ‘extraction failed’, then it may contain incorrect information. Please check the account name, sort code, and number and ensure that they do not include any special characters (punctuation marks and symbols).
The bulk payment request is future dated so it will remain as ‘pending’ until the payment is complete.
If an approver rejects a future dated bulk payment request, it may show as ‘pending’ on the ‘Manage Transactions’ page. Please review the payment status on the ‘Bulk Payments – Payments Status’ page.
Online faster payments need to be fully authorised by 4pm on the working day which they are to be paid. There is no longer a 1pm deadline for bulk payments, which was a temporary measure.
Further details with cut-off times for each electronic payment type can be viewed here.
Your Approval Matrix controls who can approve payments and their authorisation limits.
Make sure you have:
Assigned approvers
Set transaction limits
Defined approval rules for each payment type
If these are not in place, your designated approvers may not receive notifications of the payment requests.
The Approval Matrix includes limits for:
• Bulk payments – per transaction, daily transaction, weekly transaction
• Make external payment to another UK bank – per transaction, daily transaction, weekly transaction
• Make external payment within CAF Bank – per transaction, daily transaction, weekly transaction.
For more information on how approvers are selected, please refer to the Approval Matrix section in our user guide.
Payments need to be approved by 4pm of the payment date. Access to approve the instruction does not lapse. However, if the payment date has passed, the instruction cannot be approved and will need to be deleted and resubmitted with a current or future date.
Bill payments, standing orders and bulk payments are sent by our Online Faster Payments service. Payments authorised by 4pm will be processed and debited from your account the same working day. Beneficiaries will receive the payment by close of the next working day.
Instructions received after 4pm or on a weekend and English bank holidays will typically be processed the following working day.
Before making a payment, please make sure:
• Your Approval Matrix is set up with your designated approvers, transaction limits and approval rules
• Your approvers are available to authorise the payment by 4pm on the working day it’s due to be paid
• There’s enough money in your account to cover any payments due to be debited the following day.
Please check they were an authorised approver when the payment was instructed. This can be viewed via ‘Pending Requests’ (if you requested the original instruction) or ‘Pending Approvals’ (if you did not request the original instruction).
Any payment instruction approval rules rely on the approval matrix at the time of instruction. If the approval matrix was updated after the instruction, you can delete the payment request and resubmit.
We recommend you log into online banking using a desktop computer or laptop computer. This will help to ensure you can view the full width of the screen and all the relevant details.
You can make payments to multiple beneficiaries using our bulk payment service.
Our dedicated resources page provides a step-by-step overview of the bulk payments process for paying employees, suppliers or other beneficiaries.
If you have a large number of payments to make, our Bacs service provides an alternative option.
If a payment has already been submitted for approval, you cannot cancel it from Payment Status.
Only users included in the Approval Matrix can take action. These users must have an Administrator or Authoriser role and cannot approve or reject their own payments.
To reject a submitted payment:
Select the menu icon and go to Approvals & Requests
Select Pending Approvals
The Approval Dashboard will open with the Pending tab selected
Find the bulk payment request
Select Approve / View Details under Actions
Review the payment details and scroll to the bottom of the page
Select Reject Payment and confirm
The History tab shows payments that have already been approved or rejected.
For more information on how approvers are selected, please refer to the Approval Matrix section in the online banking user guide.
When you open Upload Status, your payment is checked before it is sent for approval. You may briefly see the status Uploaded while the payment is still processing. Once the upload is complete, the status will change to Ready for Review.
The page does not update automatically, so you may need to refresh or navigate away and return to see the updated status.
When the status shows Ready for Review:
Select View Details under Actions.
Review the payment details.
Complete the second stage submission to send the payment for approval.
This second review step confirms that the payment has uploaded correctly and that all details are accurate before it is sent to your approvers.
Once submitted for approval, the payment details can no longer be changed.
Important:
If the status shows Ready for Review, the payment is still in the review stage.
If the status shows Pending for Approval, the payment has been submitted to your approvers. It can no longer be changed or cancelled. If the payment is not approved, the status will show Rejected by Approver.
If the status shows Processing Payments, the payment has already been approved and is being processed.
Logging in
To activate your new online banking access, please click on the ‘Activate user access’ link and enter your username and temporary password. You’ll find this link under the ‘Log in’ button on CAF Bank online.
Further guidance on activating online banking access can be viewed here.
There are two ways you can authenticate your login credentials - by the HID Approve app or by text message - as our guide explains.
If you have a smartphone, selecting the HID Approve app is a secure and flexible way to log in and authorise payments. The app works even if you don't have internet access or a strong mobile signal. Once installed, you can choose to receive one-time passcodes directly in the app - or by text message if you prefer.
Please note: If you are a QuickBooks user, you will need to choose the HID Approve app as the authentication method.
If you haven’t received our email message with your new username, please first check your junk email folder. If you cannot see it there, you can request your new username to be resent to you by completing this form.
Please save our email address - noreply@cafbank.org - in your contacts directory. Taking this action should prevent our system-generated emails diverting to your junk mail folder.
If you are an Android phone user and have not received our text message:
Please check the ‘Spam & Blocked’ folder on your phone. To access this folder:
1. Go to your ‘Messages’
2. Tap on your profile picture
3. Click on ‘Spam and Blocked’
4. Look for a message from ‘cafbank6039’
If you are an Android phone user and you have deleted our text message:
1. Check whether you have a ‘recycle bin’ folder, or a feature to view archived messages (e.g. under the three dots on the top right of the screen) – these options vary by mobile device.
2. Look for a message from ‘cafbank6039’
If you are an iPhone user and you have not received our text message:
Please check whether or not you have a Filter set. To access this filter:
1. Go to your ‘Messages’
2. If there is a filter, this will appear in the top left corner
3. If you see this displayed, please click to show ‘Unknown Senders’
4. Look for a message from ‘cafbank6039’
If you are an iPhone user and you have deleted our text message:
1. Go to your ‘Messages’
2. If there is a filter, this will appear in the top left corner. If not, it will show ‘Edit’
3. Click on ‘Filter’ or ‘Edit’ in the top left corner
4. Select ‘Show Recently Deleted’
5. Look for a message from ‘cafbank6039’
If you are still unable to locate our text message:
Please request your temporary password to be resent to you by completing this form.
Users have reported that they have been successful in accessing their accounts after switching browsers. For example, if you’re using Firefox you may wish to try Google Chrome.
We appreciate some customers continue to experience issues receiving one-time passcodes (OTPs) by text message. We continue to work with our service provider to improve the delivery of OTPs. We are sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused.
We have heard that for some users, there are issues with OTPs not being recognised when entered online. We believe this issue can occur when the OTP entry field is clicked before you receive the OTP. This is causing customers to be unable to click on the ‘Continue’ button to proceed. While we carry out testing to identify the root cause, please wait for the OTP to arrive before clicking the OTP entry field.
If you have not set up online access yet, we recommend using the HID Approve app as a secure and flexible way to log in.
Staying vigilant means you’ll be less likely to be tricked by scammers. If an email from CAF Bank doesn’t look right, report it to us at scamreporting@cafonline.org
Remember, CAF Bank will never:
1. Text or email you with a link to make or authorise a payment
2. Claim your money isn’t safe, or that your account is at risk
3. Ask you to make an urgent payment from your account
4. Request your PIN, One-Time Passcode that you received in a text message, or full password for telephone and online banking
Take a look at the rest of our Seven Golden Rules, along with more information on how to stay safe in our Security Centre.
Statements and transactions
Where you can view transactions depends on whether they were posted before or after the switch to our new online banking service.
To view or download transactions since 07/06/2025:
1. Click on ‘Accounts’ to open the ‘Accounts Overview’ screen and then select the relevant account.
2. Your recent transactions will appear under ‘Transactions’. At the bottom of the screen, you can change the number of transactions viewed on each page and move between pages.
3. To search transactions, click on the magnifying glass on the ‘Transactions’ screen. You can search by keyword, transaction type, time period, payment amount and cheque number.
4. After you have set your search criteria, click 'Search' to view the results.
5. To download the search results, click the download icon (next to the magnifying glass).
6. Pick the date range and select your preferred file format (CSV, Excel or PDF) to export the transactions data.
Please note: The date range for each search or download can be up to 31 days.
To view or download 18 months of transactions up to 06/06/2025:
1. Click on ‘Accounts’ to open the ‘Accounts Overview’ screen and then select the relevant account.
2. Click ‘Historical Transactions’ to the right of the account details.
3. Enter a date range for your search or download of transactions.
Please note: The date range for each search or download can be up to 31 days.
4. Click 'Search' to view the results, or ‘Download’ to export the search results. The search results can show up to 499 transactions on each page at a time.
5. Select your preferred file format (CSV or PDF) to export the transactions data.
Account holders can view and download up to 36 months of statements on the ‘Accounts Statements’ screen, within ‘My Accounts’. Statements can be exported as a PDF.
If you can't see a transaction posted on your account, please contact our Customer Service team on: 03000 123 456 (Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm, except English bank holidays).
We’re aware that there is an issue for a number of customers with how statements are showing the running balance when interest is credited. Please be assured this is a display issue only, and your balances are correct. We’re working on a fix to make sure these are displayed correctly.
Account balances are available and correct within the statement function, and each account has an additional statement ending on 6 June. These are available to view from the ‘Account Statements’ menu. The 6 June statement concludes with a 'Carried forward' balance which matches the 'Principal Adjustment' within the ‘Transactions’ screen.
You can find your statements in online banking by clicking main menu, then ‘My Accounts’ to expand the selection, and then choosing ‘Account Statements’. Available statements will be shown on the Account Statements screen, and can be downloaded as a PDF. Account holders will be able to view up to 36 months of statements. You can also view and download a list of up to 18 months of historical transactions as a CSV or PDF file.
Please refer to Section 2 of our new user guide for further information on managing your statements in online banking. If you have any difficulty finding your account statements, please get in touch.
We are ready to support automatic connections to accounting platforms through industry standard Third Party Providers, such as Xero. Xero know that many of our customers would like to see this integration. Adding your voice can help show the level of interest.
If you use Xero, please log into your account and visit this external petition page to cast your vote. Leaving a short comment about why this connection matters to your organisation will help demonstrate demand to Xero’s Product Team.
Thank you for your support.
Yes, you can link to your CAF Gold Account from QuickBooks, in addition to your CAF Cash Account.
Yes. If you manage more than one charity in QuickBooks, you can create Open Banking consents to link to each of them so that all accounts automatically update daily.
System performance
Online banking will automatically log users out after 5 minutes of inactivity to maintain security.
The new online banking service uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).